The invention is in the field of mechanical engineering, in particular fine mechanics, and can be used particularly profitably in the medical field.
The invention more specifically relates to a rotor for an axial flow pump.
In particular in medical engineering, pumps are required in small construction shapes, so-called micropumps, for a variety of applications. They are used for microinvasive applications, for example for conveying the body's own fluids in the body's own cavities or vessels. Such pumps are typically connected in microconstruction to catheters and are introduced, for example, through the body's own vessels and are brought to the site of use. A specific example for the use of such pumps is represented by so-called heart pumps which can be introduced into the body through a large blood vessel and which can assist or even replace the blood conveying of the heart.
Rotary pumps have specifically become known in this connection which are made as axial flow pumps.
A specific property of some pumps of this type is, in addition to their small construction shape per se, furthermore the radial compressibility so that such a pump can be compressed for transport through a blood vessel and can be expanded after the conveying to the site of use, for example in a heart chamber.
A pump of this type has become known, for example, from the US laying-open publications US 2009/0060743 A1 and US 2008/0114339 A1. The axial flow pumps described in these documents each have a shaft and a row of impeller blades flexibly attached thereto which convey a fluid in an axial direction on a rotation of the shaft. The impeller blades can be radially applied to the shaft so that the rotor is compressible in this manner. In operation, the individual impeller blades become erect, inter alia due to the fluid counterpressure, so that the pump has a considerable conveying capacity.